The 2016 White Sox season on Comcast SportsNet includes 107 live regular season games, starting off with the SEASON OPENER against the Oakland Athletics on Monday, April 4 at 9:00 PM CT, featuring the veteran White Sox announcing tandem of Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Steve Stone on the call LIVE from the O.co Coliseum in Oakland, CA. Opening Day coverage begins at 8:30 PM CT with the season premiere of White Sox Pregame Live presented by The Kowalis Family of Dealerships, hosted by Comcast SportsNet’s White Sox studio tandem of Chuck Garfien and Bill Melton, along with CSN’s White Sox beat reporter Siera Santos providing live reports from Oakland. The game will be immediately followed by an expanded edition of Subaru White Sox Postgame Live, featuring White Sox manager Robin Ventura’s live post-game press conference, along with player post-game reaction, expanded highlights, detailed analysis and more.

Comcast SportsNet will also televise the 2016 White Sox HOME OPENER on Friday, April 8 at 3:00 PM CT when the White Sox host the division rival Cleveland Indians. Coverage begins at 2:00 PM with an expanded, one-hour U.S. Cellular Field LIVE REMOTE Home Opener edition of White Sox Pregame Live presented by The Kowalis Family of Dealerships with the game immediately followed by an expanded edition of Subaru White Sox Postgame Live, also live from U.S. Cellular Field.

Beginning this season, Comcast SportsNet welcomes new White Sox play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti to the broadcast booth as he will provide the call for every White Sox home game (with the exception of the home opener and Cubs “Crosstown” series) with partner Steve Stone, along with two road games in Toronto (Apr. 25 & 27). A southside Chicago-area native and graduate from Homewood-Flossmoor H.S., Benetti graduated from Syracuse University in 2005, where he earned bachelor's degrees in broadcast journalism, economics and psychology. In 2011, he also earned his juris doctor from Wake Forest University's School of Law. Prior to signing on with ESPN in 2011, Benetti called the play-by-play for the Class AAA Syracuse Chiefs, and has worked for Fox Sports 1, Westwood One Radio and Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Legendary White Sox broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson will shift to calling all road games this season, but will be on the call for the 2016 Home Opener on April 8, along with popular “Crosstown” series against the rival Cubs in late July.

In-game highlights of note for the 2016 White Sox season include a brand new NBC Sports graphics package, along with the return of CSN’s popular super slo-mo technology, which is capable of showing slow-motion replays of over 2,000 frames per second. In addition, fans can once again look forward to “Pitch Trax” in all games this season, which animates the precise pitch location throughout the game in a variety of angles, along with CSN’s “Telestrator” into select game telecasts this season, detailing key plays, defensive field formations and much more. Plus, viewers will once again get an in-depth look at MLB’s instant-replay system, which, upon a manager’s challenge, will review home runs, ground rule doubles, fan interference, along with numerous other in-game scenarios.

Among the 2016 White Sox regular season schedule highlights on Comcast SportsNet include 52 match-ups in the ultra-competitive AL Central Division featuring a total of 13 match-ups against the defending World Series Champion Kansas City Royals, along with 13 games apiece against the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, and Minnesota Twins. In addition, viewers can look forward to four games against AL MVP Josh Donaldson and the defending AL East champ Toronto Blue Jays, four games against the defending AL West champion Texas Rangers, four games against AL Wildcard reps New York Yankees and five against the Houston Astros, plus – an expanded interleague schedule including a pair of games against the defending NL Champion New York Mets, along with additional NL East battles vs. Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, and Washington featuring 2015 NL MVP Bryce Harper. ALSO -- Comcast SportsNet will carry all four White Sox-Cubs “Crosstown Cup” interleague games this year. (NOTE: the July 25 & 27 “Crosstown” games will be “White Sox” telecasts on Comcast SportsNet, while the July 26 & 28 games will be “Cubs” telecasts).

From an online perspective, Comcast SportsNet’s website, CSNChicago.com, delivers comprehensive 24/7 White Sox coverage all season long, including the following highlights:

Live stream of White Sox manager Robin Ventura’s post-game press conferences (sponsored by Xfinity) following every home game.

White Sox “Insider” Dan Hayes returns for his fifth season on the beat. Follow him on Twitter @CSNHayes for the latest team/player news and inside access 24/7. Hayes will also file daily stories/video reports and will make regular on-air appearances throughout the season on White Sox Pregame Live presented by The Kowalis Family of Dealerships, SportsTalk Live, SportsNet Central and in select Comcast SportsNet White Sox home games.

White Sox Pre/Postgame Live host Chuck Garfien will once again offer on-going reports and insight via his popular “Sox Drawer” posts, which will include exclusive video content. Garfien can also be followed on Twitter 24/7 @ChuckGarfien, for up-to-the-second White Sox news.

“White Sox Pulse,” a one-stop social media hub that reveals the latest trending topics and player buzz from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Plus, “White Sox Pulse” aggregates all White Sox player tweets, along with fan tweets that utilize the hashtag #WhiteSoxTalk. Fans can also get interactive on Twitter by utilizing hashtags #WhiteSoxTalk for the latest news, rumors, trades and more by following @CSNWhiteSox.

CSNChicago.com digital baseball reporters JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) and Paul Roumeliotis (@PaulRoumel) will also be providing game day reports, analysis and features.

In addition to his on-air duties, Garfien will partner with Hayes and CSN’s White Sox baseball beat reporter Siera Santos (@SieraSantos)this season on CSNChicago.com, providing multi-platform coverage via on-going special features and more.

CSN Chicago’s White Sox content will also be distributed via its digital network of partnerships including NBCSports.com, NBCNews.com, Yahoo! Sports and Xfinity.com.

For the ninth-straight season, Comcast SportsNet will produce every White Sox regular season home and road game in a high-definition (HD) format. In addition, ten White Sox games are currently scheduled to be telecast on Comcast SportsNet Plus (see attached schedule). Comcast SportsNet Plus (CSN+) telecasts are provided to Comcast SportsNet affiliates and distributed to viewers when two live events are scheduled simultaneously. CSN+ is available in high-definition on Comcast/Xfinity ch. 201 in the Chicago area/South Bend, IN & on Comcast/Xfinity ch. 285 in the Peoria, Springfield, Rockford and Champaign markets, along with being made available in DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse, RCN, and WOW! homes among others; viewers are urged to visit CSNChicago.com’sCHANNEL FINDERfor complete channel location details). Comcast Cable and RCN subscribers can also watch all CSN+ games in standard definition on CLTV.

Before a number of White Sox games on Comcast SportsNet (including all weekend telecasts), fans can tune to White Sox Pregame Live presented by The Kowalis Family of Dealerships featuring a half-hour of pre-game analysis, interviews and the very latest White Sox news (NOTE: for weeknight 7:00 PM game start times or earlier, pre-game coverage can be found SportsTalk Live presented by The Chevy Silverado featuring host David Kaplan or SportsNet Central presented by Comcast Business). Following the majority of all games, viewers can look forward to the most comprehensive post-game wrap-up show on Subaru White Sox Postgame Live featuring live coverage of White Sox manager Robin Ventura’s post-game press conferences and live locker room interviews with White Sox players. Following primetime editions of White Sox Postgame Live, Comcast SportsNet will air GMC SportsNet Central with the most complete recap of the day’s top local and national sports news.

Los Angeles—Lauri Markkanen called himself “The Finnisher” when asked what the movie of his life would be called.

Apparently, that moniker didn’t apply to the All-Star Skills challenge as he took down the best big men but couldn’t close against a former Bull, Spencer Dinwiddie, in the final.

The contest highlights players’ ability to dribble around cones shaped like NBA logos, throwing a chest pass into a net while having to complete a layup and then 3-pointer before their opponent does.

Markkanen took down Detroit’s Andre Drummond and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid before facing off with Dinwiddie. He held a pose after hitting a triple to beat the uber confident Embiid, in what will likely be used as a memorable gif following the weekend.

His confidence doesn’t come across as blatantly as Embiid’s, but that snapshot shows he’s no humble star in the making. He didn’t even practice for the contest, by his own admission.

“I heard some of the guys did,” Markkanen said. “I didn’t do much, just before the competition, I did a little warm-up.”

Missing on the first pass attempt into the circular net in the final, it gave Dinwiddie the advantage he wouldn’t relinquish, hitting on his second 3-point attempt before Markkanen could make it downcourt to contest.

“It’s a lot harder than I’ve seen,” Markkanen said. “I thought it was gonna be super easy but it was kind of tough. Maybe I need to hold my follow through (on the pass).”

“I saw he missed (the first shot) and I started going. I thought he would’ve missed it too. I think I would’ve gotten it on the third shot.”

Being one of the multi-dimensional big men in today’s game who can be adept on the perimeter as well as the interior, it almost seems like the contest was made for Markkanen. Although he doesn’t do much handling in Fred Hoiberg’s offense, it’s clearly a skill he will develop as time goes on.

The last two winners of the skills challenge were Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis, and Markkanen was well aware of the recent trend.

“The last two years the bigs have won,” Markkanen said. “I’m kind of pissed that I couldn’t keep the streak going after (those two). I think there’s a lot of guys who can do that now, it’s why they changed the format to bigs versus smalls.”

For Dinwiddie, who was discarded by the Bulls last season after a promising start in the preseason so they could pick up R.J. Hunter, he’s taken advantage of an opportunity with Brooklyn.

“I think for Chicago it was just another series of unfortunate events,” he said. “They were in win-now mode. I was an unproven guard on a non-guaranteed contract and they felt Michael Carter-Williams gave them a better shot to win.”

“I’m busting out of the shell. I’m talking more,” he said as he sat down for an interview with NBC Sports Chicago (in the video above).

It’s not the new Tim Anderson. It turns out, it’s the real one that’s been there all along.

“This is me. It’s always been me. I never knew how to express myself. I feel like I’m being a lot more open,” Anderson explained. “That’s what I want to give to fans. Let them know the real me. You’re cheering for me. Why not know me? I’m being open and kind of let fans into my life.”

The White Sox shortstop has learned a lot about life in the past year. It all started in May when the White Sox were in Baltimore to play the Orioles. Anderson received a phone call at 4 a.m. It was news from back home.

It was the worst phone call of his life.

His best friend Branden Moss had been murdered in the parking lot of a Tuscaloosa, Ala., bar after helping the victim of a fight.

The two were like brothers. Anderson is the godfather to Moss’s young daughter. Moss was the godfather to Anderson’s 2-year-old daughter.

“It was heartbreaking,” Anderson said.

While Anderson grieved, playing baseball seemed like it would be a perfect escape for his pain. Only it wasn’t. Far from it. Baseball might have made things even worse.

In fast-paced sports like football and hockey, players don’t have much time to think. It’s react, react, react. Whatever might be happening off the field feels like a million miles away.

Not in baseball.

The game moves at a much slower speed. There’s plenty of time for your mind to wander. Thoughts kept going back to Anderson’s lost friend, taken from him in an instant.

At 23, he didn’t have the tools to deal with the emotional pain and excel at baseball at the same time.

“The year was rough. I wasn’t having fun in between the lines. I was making the game harder than it was. I was thinking too much. I was feeling sorry for myself and the list can go on. When my friend died it definitely took a lot out of me. I had a dark moment,” Anderson said. “Some days I didn’t feel comfortable coming to the ballpark because I knew it was going to be a bad day.”

Making matters worse, there were many nights when Anderson didn’t sleep. Not a wink. Still, he dragged himself to the ballpark and somehow tried to play.

The results weren’t pretty. On June 22, Anderson already had 16 errors at shortstop, most in the majors. At the plate, he was hitting .256/.284/.374 with six home runs and 19 RBIs.

He knew he was better than that. He also knew something else: He needed help.

In July, Anderson started meeting with a therapist who was able to unlock the pent up thoughts and emotions that he was burying inside him.

The therapist would write down everything that Anderson was feeling on paper and then read it back to him.

“Just going in and talking and pouring everything out of you. It lets you hear what you’ve been going through,“ Anderson said. “When she did it, it was a lot. I took what she read to me, balled it up and threw it away. I got lighter. It was a brightening. Those counseling sessions definitely helped me.”

Soon, Anderson was back to being himself both on and off the field.

In the month of August, he had 8 doubles, 5 home runs and 16 RBI.

“Woof. I was hot,” he said after hearing those stats. “That’s Tim. That’s more Tim that we need to see.”

In September, he batted .327 with 3 home runs and 9 stolen bases.

“We need a lot of that this year. That’s the way I want to go. That’s the way I want to go about it. Get back to what got me here.”

There was still an issue with his plate discipline. He had 32 strikeouts and only 1 walk in September.

“We play a tough sport as it is. They’re going to come,” Anderson said about the walks. “I mean, when I walk more, what are you going to tell me? ‘Start swinging more?’ It’s one of those things. It’s a give and take. We’ll see what happens.”

In 2017, Anderson received a crash course in adversity. What did he learn from all that pain and misery?

“Tough times happen, but they don’t last forever.”

Now that he’s survived the personal storm from last season, he wants “another shot at it. I feel like last year went left. This is new season.”

So, what does he envision for himself in 2018?

“Having fun, smiling a lot, picking up my teammates, hugging on the coaches and players. A lot of love, more so than stats,” Anderson said. “I’m fired up. I’m excited. I feel like I’m ready to lead this pack. We got a great group of guys. We’ve got a chance to do something special.”